Winter 2021 Release Notes

Discover the new features, improvements, and bug fixes that were included in this release.

Platform

This section covers the changes to the platform.

What's new

  • Image card: You can now add images and GIFs to your analyses.
  • Live image cover card: You can now choose a visualization or image to represent your analysis when it is linked to from another analysis. This enables users to understand more about what the linked analysis shows before they navigate to it.
  • Change the analysis context token for a card: If your visual has a complex analysis context that contains multiple filters, assumptions, or scenarios, you can now edit the analysis context token that is displayed. This will help viewers understand the data that is presented especially if the analysis context has been truncated.
  • Traffic lighting legends on cards: We've added a legend to chart cards that have traffic lighting so you can quickly understand the rules applied.
  • Visual title UI refresh: We've made visual enhancements to the visual title to make it easier to read and to find the visual title control that you're looking for.
  • Drill path improvements: We've made it easier for you to find where you are in the drill path when looking at hierarchical data. Previously, the drill path was shown at the bottom of the visualization. We've moved the drill path to the Analysis Context toolbar where it'll appear as a token. Also, when you change the visual type, the visualization will no longer reset to the top level of the drill path. This means you'll no longer have to drill back down to the level you were at when you change visual types.
  • Additional guidance in the solution experience: We've made it easier for you to find descriptions and explanations for metrics, attributes, and visuals throughout the solution. Simply hover over items in the Info panel, chart cards in an analysis, tokens in the analysis context, or attributes in View Details and the Compare room to reveal the Help button.
  • Key group descriptions: You can now add a description to your key groups to help users understand what they're looking at. The description will appear when users hover over the tokens and comparisons that the key group is used in.
  • Comparison workflow improvements: We've simplified the comparison workflows so you can now:
    • Create a group comparison using the population defined in your analysis context without having to save the population as a key group first. The applied analysis context becomes the primary comparator.
    • Create a comparison between your What-if assumptions and the overall projection without having to save your assumptions as a scenario first. This allows you to quickly visualize the effect of your assumptions on the projection metric.
    • Add a custom display name to the comparators in your visualization when comparing metrics, groups, scenarios, and time periods. The custom display name is used in the visual title, captures, and chart cards in an analysis.
  • Movement highlight: Highlight a specific group in the Movement Breakdown visual to drill deeper into your organization's movement and its impact on diversity. For example, highlight a diverse group to see how the proportion of the group to the overall has changed. If the net change is negative, identify and address the individual movement components that contributed the most to the decrease in diversity.
  • Reference lines: Add a reference line to your Breakdown visual to compare, measure, or emphasize a specific value.
  • Analysis email push for non-admins: Non-admin users can now schedule and mange their own analysis email campaigns. Additionally, you can now schedule and deliver guidebook topics to users via email.
  • Default filter per analytic object: Administrators can now apply a default filter for each analytic object (e.g., employee, engagement, and candidate). This allows users to start with a frequently applied context, like gender or location, while exploring different business questions; these filters enable efficient exploration and reduce the learning curve.
  • Enhanced threshold security: We improved threshold security to allow you to roll out analytics to a larger audience within your organization. Administrators can now set the granular security thresholds at the property level. For example, set a threshold for Ethnicity or Gender to control the exact data that is seen at the aggregate level by your entire user base. This allows you to comply with the Diversity and Inclusion controls within your organization.
  • Email templates: Administrators can now customize the templates for emails sent to users. This allows you to change the subject and body of predefined emails and use dynamic text options through variable tokens.
  • Convert to shared dimension: Users can now convert a local dimension to a shared dimension for leveled and parent-child dimensions.
  • Data Connectors is now Data Exports: The Data Connectors feature has been renamed to Data Exports. You'll start seeing the name changes in the user interface this release.

Bug fixes

  • 55331 - Job status notifications: We fixed an issue where email notifications were not sent when a new data version was published to Production.
  • 59577 - Projects: Content packages that have been changed in a project are now highlighted in orange.
  • 60508 - Deleting users: A user can no longer be deleted until the reassign content option appears.
  • 63993 - Chart legends: Chart legends will now update when the color of a trend line is changed.
  • 65154 - Filtering an analysis: We fixed an issue where attribute values would disappear from the Filter picker when selecting an applied filter token at the analysis level. This usually happened after clicking on and exploring a chart in the analysis.
  • 65173 - Breakdown and Trend Breakdown visuals: Previously, you could create stacked bar visuals that contained positive and negative segments and stacked bar visuals where the sum of the bars would be greater than the overall value. We've made some tweaks so you can no longer combine certain metrics and group bys to create these confusing visuals. Previously captured visuals that fit this criteria will no longer be displayed.
  • 66675 - Selection concepts: You can add Direct Manager dimensions to selection concepts again.
  • 67507 - Analysis downloads: We fixed an issue where cohort filters were not being applied to visuals in the analysis download.
  • 67329 - Table visual: Sometimes switching to the Table visual from another visual type would cause the previously selected time context to be dropped. We've fixed this issue.

Visier People

This section covers the changes to the content of the Visier People solution.

All

What's new

  • Guidebook content: We've added new Discover Insights, Learn About Analytics, and Validate Your Data analyses. Highlights include:
    • A Step-by-Step Guide to Overtime Analysis
    • A Step-by-Step Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    • The Second Step of DE&I: Equity
    • The Third Step of DE&I: Inclusion
    • A Step-by-Step Guide to Analyzing Hiring Sources

    Note: Access to these analyses will depend on your Visier People subscription.

  • Usage metrics: When analyzing the usage of Visier People, you'll now see additional action, content, and user properties in View Details.

Organization

What's new

  • Global ethnicity: We've expanded the Ethnicity dimension and Minority metrics to include definitions from other countries. You can also define underrepresented groups and analyze specific combinations (intersectionality) of ethnicities and genders.
  • Percent of Total metrics: Use the following metrics to express a specific start or exit event as a percentage of the total events: Employee Starts Percent of Total, External Starts Percent of Total, and Employee Exit Percent of Total.
  • Retained Employees concept: Use the Retained Employees concept to look at employees who did not have an exit event during the selected period.
  • Average Time in Current Pay Level: Use this metric to see the average amount of time, in months, employees have been in their current pay level at the end of the period.

Improvements

  • Numeric attributes: We've enabled additional numeric attributes that you can use to to filter your data.

Bug fixes

  • 59252 - Documentation: We've updated guidance for Reduction in Force (RIF) metrics.
  • 63586 - Internal Placement events: When filtering by Internal Placement events, employees who have an internal placement on the last day of the month will now be captured by the filter.
  • 66973 - Employee Movement model: We've updated the Employee Movement model to account for furloughed employees.

Planning

What's new

  • Full-time equivalent (FTE) model for Visier Planning: You can now see the impact on the FTE as you make changes to your workforce plan. The model calculates the FTE for your future headcount to ensure that your plan is aligned with the FTE budget produced by Finance. This model allows you to load an overlay for the Finance FTE planned values and define a limit for the FTE. The FTE limit can also be loaded from the Finance FTE plan.

    Note: To enable the FTE model in new and existing plans, an administrator must set the plan item security for Full-time equivalents (FTE) to include the permissions that should have access to the FTE model.

  • Auto-promote members based off of limits: New members included in the overlay/limit data will automatically be promoted as new segments in your workforce plan. This means when an update to the finance plan is made, you won't need to manually resolve and reconcile all the new segments.
  • Plan member search: You can once again search for plan hierarchy members in Explore.
  • Budgeted Total Cost of Workforce metrics: Use the Per Employee with Value and Budgeted Per FTE with Value metrics to look at budgeted costs that exclude employees with zero pay amount.

Bug fixes

  • 68672 - Exploration Snapshots: We fixed an issue that caused null (N/A) values to appear for non-aggregate measures in Exploration Snapshots.

Talent Acquisition

What's new

  • Estimated Recruiting Effort metrics: Find the optimal workload for a recruiter by using the Estimated Recruiting Effort - Open Positions and Estimated Recruiting Effort - Positions Filled in Period parameterized metrics. Assign effort points to create a system that'll allow you to compare the workload across recruiters and teams.
  • Applicant Activity in Period: Use this metric to see all applicant movement into applicant process stages. This metric counts distinct entries into the selected stage and can be used to measure applicant activity and movement.
  • Time to Start: Use this metric to measure the average time it takes applicants to start work as an employee from the requisition approved date for all hired applicants on a requisition.

Improvements

  • In period metrics: We've renamed the following metrics to reflect that they are aggregating data within the selected period:
    • Applicant Hire Events in Period
    • Applicants for Active Requisitions in Period
    • External Hires in Period
    • Interviews in Period
    • Job Postings in Period
    • New Candidates in Period
    • Offers Accepted in Period
    • Offers Declined in Period
    • Offers Extended in Period
    • Offers Withdrawn in Period
    • Positions Filled per Recruiter in Period
  • Position Filled in Period property: We've renamed the Position Filled in Period property on the Requisition subject to Applicants Hired in Period to be more explicit about what the property is calculating. We've also updated the display names of metrics related to this property to reflect the new name.
  • Numeric attributes: We've enabled additional numeric attributes that you can use to to filter your data.

Bug fixes

  • 58638 - Estimated Total Headcount metric: We've updated the formula for the Estimated Total Headcount metric so it no longer double counts applicants who are hired and become employees during the period.
  • 59595 - Applicant process metrics: We've updated the formula of the Count in Applied Stage metric to count applicants who are currently in the Applied stage. The metric used to count applicants who have ever been in or past the Applied stage.

Talent Essentials

What's new

  • Headcount Walk What-if model: Use this new What-if model to estimate the headcount while adjusting the assumptions around the monthly rates at which employees start and exit the organization. This model incorporates historical actuals, future known transactions, and future assumptions to reconcile headcount. The model can be found in the Visier People guidebook. Check out the Learn About Analytics topic or search for the analysis named Learn About Visier's Headcount Walk.

    Note: Future Known Starts is only included in the model if you have a subscription for Talent Acquisition. This metric is optional and not required for the model to work.

  • Global ethnicity: We've expanded the Ethnicity dimension and Minority metrics to include definitions from other countries. This will allow you to analyze specific combinations (intersectionality) of ethnicities and genders on promotions.
  • Percent of Total metrics:
    • Use the Promotion Events Percent of Total metric to express a specific promotion event as a percentage of the total promotions.
    • Use the Lateral Move Events Percent of Total metric to express the number of lateral moves as a percentage of the total moves.
  • Budgeted Total Cost of Workforce metrics: Use the Per Employee with Value and Budgeted Per FTE with Value metrics to look at budgeted costs that exclude employees with zero pay amount.

Improvements

  • Display name change: All trailing twelve months metrics now have the phrase Trailing 12 mos in their display names.'
  • Guidebook content: We've incorporated the Retirement Eligibility parameterized metric into the analysis titled What retirement risks need to be managed.

Bug fixes

  • 57186 - Estimated Cost of Replacement model: We've updated the What-if model so that it shows zeros instead of null (N/A) values for populations that aren't included in the applied filter.

Talent Expert

What's new

  • Performance check-ins and feedback: We've added Employee Feedback metrics to quantify the total amount of feedback being given and received between individual employees in your organization.
  • Employee Experience metrics: We've made improvements to the Employee Experience metrics to help you analyze sentiments shared in employee surveys:
    • Filter by Survey ID or Survey Name to see the results of a specific survey.
    • Use the Survey Invitations Count and the Respondent Rate metrics to assess your survey response rates.
    • Use the Employee NPS metric to see the difference between the percentage of positive and negative employee survey responses.
    • Group Employee Experience metrics by Employee dimensions such as Organization Hierarchy.
    • See text responses to open-ended survey questions in View Details.

Improvements

  • Survey Respondent Rate metric: We've changed the formula for this metric. The Survey Respondent Rate is calculated by dividing the number of employees who responded to a survey by the number of survey invitations during the period.

Bug fixes

  • 49559 - Unique Successors metric: You can now compare the Unique Successors metric to any Employee based metric.
  • 53211 - Recognition Awarded: We fixed an issue where the Recognition Awarded metric and the Recognition Rewarded property produced different values.
  • 54661 - Absence events: We've added the Compensation Value property to Absence events so you can see the actual compensation cost of the employee’s absence days in View Details.
  • 64659 - Succession Depth Rate metrics: We've updated the formulas of these metrics so they sum up the total count of successor candidates who are active employees.
  • 64679 - Successors metric: We've updated the formula for the Successors metric so it excludes inactive employees in View Details.

Workforce

What's new

  • Percent of Total metrics: Use the New Cases Percent of Total metric to express the number of new cases as a percentage of the total cases.
  • Fatigue metrics: We've added new metrics that will help you identify employees who work too many days consecutively. New metrics include:
    • Days Worked Over Maximum Consecutive Limit
    • Employee with Long Work Streak Count
    • Long Work Streak Count
    • Time and Attendance Headcount
    • Work Streaks Count

Visier Benchmarks

New measured values for Visier Benchmarks Trends

  • We've added measured values for Q3 2020.

Visier Benchmarks Trends

The current breakdown of Visier Benchmarks Trends:

  • Measured values from Q1 2017 to Q3 2020.
  • Extrapolated values from Q4 2020 to Q3 2021.

Visier Benchmarks Reports

The current breakdown of Visier Benchmarks Reports:

  • Measured values for 2017 to 2019.
  • Extrapolated values for 2020 and 2021.

Summary of Visier Benchmarks dataset

The Visier Benchmarks dataset was last updated January 2021.

  • Benchmark values available: 717,519.
  • Employee records in dataset: 9,072,997.